Anne Gruner, co-chair of the National Security Leaders for Fairfax, submitted the following to members of the General Laws and Technology Committee of the Virginia Senate on Wednesday.
Dear Senators:
I am writing to ask you to please consider the following as you contemplate SB 982.
As you have heard, one hundred and nine former national security officials, civilian, military and contractors, signed a footnoted letter explaining why they believed a gambling casino at Tysons, or elsewhere in Fairfax County, represented a unique threat to our national security.
Within a few miles around Tysons is the largest concentration of federal officials with the most sensitive national security clearances in the country, together with a plethora of defense contractors working on the most critical defense programs and systems. The area already is the focus of intense scrutiny by foreign intelligence officials, both adversarial and otherwise, with some 10,000 posted to the general metropolitan area.
The closer a gambling casino is to a population, the more likely that population will visit it. In
other words, Tysons is not Dumphries, Danville, or the National Harbor. Studies have confirmed that people living close to casinos have some of the highest rates of gambling addiction.
Gambling addiction is a real disease that rewires the neurons in the prefrontal cortex, in the same way as drugs and alcohol. Unlike drugs and alcohol, however, it is easy to hide, at least
physically. The gambling addiction rate is beginning to soar above the national rate of 5% as
states find they need to spend millions for problem gambling treatment. States might or might
not find this level of addiction acceptable, whether they are willing or able to pay for treatment,
as well as the other attendant negative externalities of crime and corruption.
However, in the view of over one hundred former officials, it is not in the national interest to
have thousands of our national security professionals tempted to partake simply due to the sheer proximity and ease of access to such an entertainment facility. What starts as a fun night on the town can end with a relentless, life-destroying disease.
The reason you should not want this to happen is that when problem gambling is eventually
discovered, people with national security clearances lose their jobs. Neither they nor their unique expertise can be easily replaced in the near term. Years of intelligence or military experience, whether analytical or operational, cannot be learned in academia or replaced with new recruits.
More importantly, such personnel have unique and often critical information about our country’s intelligence and defense capabilities, sources, and methods. For this reason, they are prime targets for adversarial intelligence operatives who will be constantly monitoring a Tysons casino for targets of recruitment via extortion. The FBI has warned that transnational organized crime associated with casinos has become a significant and growing threat.
In September 2023, all the MGM casinos, including the one at the National Harbor, suffered a week-long, massive cyberattack with all their clients’ data compromised, including social security and passport numbers. Adversarial intelligence services work closely with organized crime. Whatever criminals obtain, you can be sure the intelligence services also will acquire. It has been publicly acknowledged that at least seven espionage cases have involved problem gambling. The actual number undoubtedly is higher. The loss from espionage can be priceless.
Those who signed the national security letter are from around the country, not simply NIMBY’s as Senator Surovell suggested. They signed it because the understand the problem and the threat it poses. They understand why President Putin outlawed casinos in major cities, one of his advisors explaining that gambling threatened Russia’s national security. I am no fan of Putin’s, having spent my career fighting the Cold War and negotiating the elimination and reduction of nuclear weapons, but I do understand the point. I have always sought to protect my country and continue to do so by sending you this appeal.
I hope you will agree that raising revenue — as temporary as that generally is due to external
costs — by creating a public health hazard and national security threat is a bad idea. I ask you to please do the “right” thing and keep a casino out of Tysons or elsewhere in Fairfax County.
Most respectfully,
Anne C. Gruner
Co-Chair, National Security Leaders for Fairfax
Former Deputy Director, Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control,
(WINPAC), Director of Central Intelligence Center
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